The cryptocurrency space has endured a gruelling 10-month bear market in 2018, with the majority of altcoins losing up to 95% of their value, while Bitcoin has fallen from its all-time high of $20,000 to around $6,400 in October.
This market cycle is nothing new in cryptocurrency; long-term investors will remember the 2014 bear market with angst. Bitcoin rallied in Q4 of 2013 from $100 to $1,175 before crashing back down to lows of $165 during a two-year bear cycle.
It wasn’t until the end of 2015 when some relief entered the market, with Bitcoin rallying back up to $500 before making a high of $770 in June 2016. At the time, the price-action was considered to be wildly volatile, with many sceptics claiming that the Bitcoin bubble had popped and that prices over $1,000 would never be possible again.
Whereas what actually transpired was the biggest bull market since the millenium as Bitcoin’s parabolic rise in 2017 saw not only $1,000 eclipsed, but also $10,000 and $20,000 before a corrective move to the downside.
One notable difference in the 2017 bull market was the performance of altcoins, many of which rallied over 1,500%, providing a switch of emphasis away from Bitcoin in the cryptocurrency market.
With the market, and much of the wider world, now engaged with the possibility that altcoins could provide higher yields than traditional investments, the next bull market could trigger altcoins to surpass all-time highs and reach previously unimaginable heights.
Below is a list of five low market-cap altcoins that look set to impress over the next bull market.
Restart Energy has an incredibly low market-cap in comparison to many altcoins or tokens out there. This means that there is some added risk when investing as one, or a few, entities could control the supply of the token relatively easily.
However, from a fundamental standpoint Restart Energy are considerably undervalued. They have already secured an official European Union licence to provide energy across the continent, while they also have over 30,000 paying customers already signed up to their platform.
Their revenue in 2017 was over $20 million with 2018 expected to surpass $100 million. Restart Energy also have an interesting franchise scheme, which allows token holders to open their own country or city-wide energy franchise in order to resell energy to private suppliers or companies.
Here’s where the blockchain technology comes in; every MWAT token, of which there are 452,750,000 in circulation, enables the trading and storage of energy on the Ethereum blockchain, with each token being backed by 0.11kWh of power.
Holders of the MWAT token will passively earn energy, which can then be sold on a peer-to-peer decentralised marketplace called the RED platform. The use of the blockchain enables transparency between peers as well as up to a 30% energy saving as the process cuts out middlemen and intermediaries.
The AURA token is a utility-token that allows users to earn rebates while trading on the IDEX platform, a decentralised exchange based on the Ethereum blockchain.
Decentralised exchanges have gained popularity over the past year or so, with Ether Delta providing a platform in 2017 that allowed users to trade their erc-20 tokens while retaining ownership; eliminating the risk of potential exchange hacks or scams.
Ether Delta was taken over by a new shareholders in December 2017 and it took a few months for the exchange to become operational once again. In the meantime, IDEX launched their own exchange, raising 5411.38 Ethereum in a public ICO in January 2018.
One of the standout features of the platform was the ability to let traders trade cryptocurrencies directly with their hardware wallet, like a Ledger Nano S or a Trezor wallet. Another interesting feature is the utilisation of the AURA token itself; traders who use the platform will automatically generate AURA tokens, which are paid out at the end of each month.
Native exchange tokens have performed well over the past 18 months, with Binance’s BNB rising from a $10 million market cap to just under $2 billion in under a year.
This, coupled with the fact that decentralised exchanges are seemingly on the rise, makes AURA a well-placed token to make an impact moving into 2019.
Veritaseum is a New York-based blockchain company that offers research, an autonomous trading machines and asset-backed commodities on the Ethereum blockchain.
CEO of Veritaseum Reggie Middleton has amassed quite a following over the years, frequently appearing on RT and other broadcasts as a market analyst. He made the transition into cryptocurrency in 2014, creating Veritaseum before launching an ICO for Veri tokens in 2017.
Veri tokens are used to access the VeADIR platform, which enables users to gain exposure to asset-backed gold, silver and other commodities, all on the Ethereum blockchain.
One of Veritaseum’s unique selling points is their expansion into lower economically developed nations, notably Uganda where Middleton has announced he will accept Ugandan Shilling deposits to enable citizens to use the VeADIR platform. In a country where just 11% of the citizens hold bank accounts, the vision shows the potential impact blockchain technology can have in countries like Uganda.
Having already experienced the highs of 2017’s bull market and the lows of 2018’s subsequent bear market, Veritaseum is well-placed to make in impact moving into 2019. The circulating supply of tokens is just two million, meaning that when demand picks up the token price has tremendous upside potential.
Modum is a supply chain company based in Switzerland, focussing primarily on the pharmaceutical industry as well as food, luxury goods and electronics.
The Zurich-based blockchain company have a working product that details the chain of medicines, from production to distribution to receipt. The idea behind the product is to ensure medicines are received by patients or pharmacists without tampering or being damaged by changing temperature conditions during transit.
The use of the MOD token comes from profit-sharing (dividends) being paid to holders, as well as the ability to vote in community engagement projects. The voting process ensures that holders have a say in whether Modum are meeting milestones set in the whitepaper.
Blockchain technology ensures that the Modum sensor, which travels with products in transit, is completely tamperproof. The sensor inputs data directly into a smart contract, offering transparency to both sides.
The team’s hard-work hasn’t gone unnoticed in 2018 as they have been announced as a finalist for the Swiss Digital Economy Awards.
Paypie is an interesting concept that will input credit rating data of companies and private individuals on the blockchain.
Marketed as a ‘credit chance evaluation system’, PayPie plans to bring ‘extreme trust and transparency’ to the financial markets by introducing the world’s first hazard score calculation.
One major problem that PayPie are looking to solve is accountancy fraud, where businesses can edit monetary records by inputting incorrect figures to avoid potential tax liabilities.
As well as issuing a hazard credit rating on the blockchain, the PayPie token will allow users to buy marked down invoices as well as ongoing financial data for a specific SME.
One of the venture’s competitors in the space, Populous World, saw a vast amount of open interest in their invoice factoring service over 2017. With a market cap exceeding $2.5 billion at the peak of the bull market.
PayPie have an experienced team who have worked for the likes of Microsoft, SlickPie (parent company), Citrix, Forbes, Bosch, IBM SAP, Oracle, Bank of America, Deloitte and Barclays.
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